Purple Martin Colony 159 



no preparatory treatment; it was evidently captured alive on the wing, carried 

 to the nest, and delivered to the young birds whole, and perhaps still alive. 

 The cajiacity of the small mouths was suri)rising; dragon- flies two cr three 

 inches long were the principal food, and were swallowed readily. Twice a 

 young bird ate an Antiopa butterfly, wings and all, with no difficulty or delay. 

 Once an old bird brought several millers crowded into her bill, and once I 

 made out a bee or a wasp. But nine times out of ten the young were fed with 

 large dragon-flies. 



These were brought in one by one and, when crowded well down a young 

 bird's throat, kept him busy, munching and swallowing, while the others still 

 clamored for food, sometimes even biting at the old bird. She, however, with 

 the same eagerness with which she had brought the food, pushed past them 

 into the apartment and reappeared, carrying a ficcal sac in her bill. The 

 removal of e.xcrement seemed as much a part of each visit to the nest as the 

 feeding of the young, and it was seldom omitted. The excrement was white, 

 slightly curved, in shape longer and slimmer than that of a Robin. Indeed, 

 it had not the appearance of a sac, but rather of a thick worm. Its consistency 

 was such as to be easily taken in the beak and carried away. Both parents 

 removed the excrement and dropped it nearby while on the wing. I never 

 saw an adult bird of either sex eat it, but once a young bird swallowed a bit 

 which he found lying on his door-sill. Almost invariably the adults entered 

 the nest to clean it, but rarely I saw a young bird, with tell-tale nervousness, 

 turn about, so that the parent was able to snatch the excrement from him. 



From very early in the morning until fifteen minutes after sunset the Mar- 

 tins were on the wing, chiefly in the interests of their young; and during all 

 this long period of work their combined voices rose almost to a continuous 

 noise. The voice is loud and rough almost to hoarseness, with a brazen ring. 

 It has a quality which suggests the Scarlet Tanager, and the alarm note 

 "kerp" is remarkably like the Evening Grosbeak's call. In flight the Martin 

 gives a short, often repeated note which recalls the Redpoll's "tchu-tchu." 

 Two birds meeting in the air may utter a grating "ka-a-a," and as the birds 

 sweep away from the box, and very likely at other times, they whistle out 

 "koo-kee-koo," which, when shortened to two syllables, as it often is, sounds 

 very Hke our word "Bo-peep." What I took to be the complicated song of 

 the male is made up of several throaty notes followed by a spluttering trill. 

 At this season the birds sang little, and very likely imperfectly. The song 

 resembled somewhat that of a Barn Swallow, except that the voice of the 

 Martin was pitched lower. Another note, given singly as a kind of solemnly 

 pronounced exclamation, was a low-toned "kroop." The cry of the young for 

 food ,was an insistent "kirp," lighter and higher than the adult's call, but 

 otherwise similar. 



The plumage of the young at this stage was curiously intermediate between the 

 plumages of the parents. All of the adult females were much browner than any 



